U23 Vietnam in group C with Philippines and Laos

On the afternoon of May 29, the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) conducted the draw ceremony for the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 Championship.

U23 Vietnam competes in Group C of the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 Championship. (Source: VFF)

There are 10 teams participating in the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 Championship and they are divided into 3 groups, of which group A has 4 teams, groups B and C each have 3 teams.

The teams are divided into three seed groups based on their performance in last year's tournament. The top seed group includes U23 Vietnam (reigning champions), Thailand (reigning runners-up) and Timor Leste (3rd place).

Pot 2 includes Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Pot 3 includes Brunei, Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar.

According to the draw results, the U23 Vietnam team is in group C with the Philippines and Laos.

Meanwhile, the host team Thailand is in Group A with Cambodia, Brunei and Myanmar. Group B will be a competition between Timor Leste, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The 2023 AFF U23 Championship will take place from August 17-26 in Thailand. This is the fourth time the tournament has been held after three times in 2005, 2019 and 2022.

The teams compete in a round-robin format to determine their ranking in each group. The three group winners and the best second-placed team from each group will advance to the semi-finals. The two semi-final winners will play in the championship final, while the two semi-final losers will meet in the third-place match.

In order to build up the team towards important goals in the future, the Vietnam U23 team will participate in the tournament with the main players being U20 players, considering this as a stepping stone to prepare for the Asian Games (ASIAD) in Hangzhou (China) next September.

Previously, at the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship in Cambodia, coach Dinh The Nam and his team defeated U23 Thailand 1-0 to win the championship.